Festive Guest Post – Q&A with Holly from BookaholicHolly

My name’s Holly, I’m 24 years old…and I am a bookaholic. I live in the Midlands with my three Miniature Dachshunds and a large collection of books, shoes and handbags. I work as a Library Assistant and have studied English Language and Creative Writing. As well as books and writing I love animals, wildlife, nature… I’m a bit of an all round geek, really.
I started my book blog, Bookaholic Confessions in June 2014 after much encouragement from some of my lovely book blogging friends and it was one of the best decisions I ever made. It’s become a huge part of my life and I can’t imagine my life without book blogging. I absolutely love it and have discovered so many new authors and genres since, as well as getting to know so many amazing people who will be friends for life.
If you like the colour pink and want to see me getting waaaay too over excited about books and read some of my bookish ramblings and reviews then please feel free to stop by bookaholicconfessions.wordpress.com

When do you normally get in the Festive spirit?
I usually get into the Festive spirit as early as I can possibly get away with…
As soon as Halloween and Bonfire Night are through then it’s Jingle All The Way as far as I’m concerned!
I love Christmas and for me the ‘most wonderful time of the year’ is even more wonderful because it’s my Birthday six days before, so all in all December is quite possibly my favourite month of the whole entire year…

What is a family tradition you like to have or do at Christmas?
We don’t really have many family traditions at Christmas, just the usual things like going to bed ridiculously early on Christmas Eve and then getting up ridiculously early to open presents in your PJ’s on Christmas Day.

Favourite past Christmas?
There are loads of favourite past Christmases but if I had to choose I’d probably pick one from when I was younger. There’s nothing quite like the magic of being a child at Christmas. I would get so over-excited I would practically burst each year. I would always wake up way before 7am (My Dad’s curfew, I wasn’t allowed to get up before then – can you imagine!? The torture!) Then lugging my sack of presents down the stairs, spending the day with all of my family and the people I loved most, eating lots of yummy food (including an extraordinary amount of chocolate, no doubt) then an afternoon of nothing but playing with Barbie cars and Cabbage Patch dolls. Bliss.
Do you love buying/wrapping gifts and seeing everybody’s face’s on Christmas
I love buying people presents, especially when they’re complete surprises! As you get older you start to look forward to giving people gifts more and more – almost as much as you do receiving them, which makes it all the more exciting, especially if you’ve tracked down the PERFECT present for someone. I love to see their faces! However, I am hopeless at wrapping. I’m not sure why, it’s just a skill that has always eluded me… I can never get the amount of sellotape right, it’s either too much or too little. I think I need to practise.

Favourite Christmas Book?
I have SO MANY favourite Christmas books. Talking classics, I love A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, Christmas at Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons and Christmas Stories by Diana Secker Tesdell, which is a collection of classic Christmas stories. There have been so many modern day releases that I’ve loved lately too but a special mention goes to A Very Coco Christmas by Robert Bryndza, Calling Mrs Christmas by Carole Matthews, Christmas at Carrington’s by Alexandra Brown and Just For Christmas and Married By Christmas by Scarlett Bailey.

What is it like on Christmas Day for you & your family?
Christmas Day can be kind of manic in my house. Having three dogs who are like big kids at Christmas certainly livens things up as they follow you round eating wrapping paper, fighting over toys, trying to steal your presents and generally misbehaving. Once the excitement levels have slightly calmed it’s usually a relaxing, quiet time spent eating, watching Christmas movies and catching up with family.

When do you normally put your Christmas tree up?
I usually put my Christmas tree up on 1st December (unless I’ve given in to temptation and done it just before…) I do generally try and restrain myself and wait until December has officially arrived.

Favourite Christmas Movie?
As with favourite Christmas books I have SO MANY favourite Christmas films. Are you ready? *Deep breath* Home Alone, Home Alone 2, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Jingle All The Way, Miracle on 34th Street, It’s A Wonderful Life, Christmas With The Kranks, Nativity…You get the idea, I love Christmas and I love Christmas films.

Massive thanks to Holly for taking part in Festive-Blog-Athon, it’s been a pleasure having you on my blog! Make sure you head over to Holly’s blog and follow her on twitter!

Make sure you’re keeping up with the other posts in Festive-Blog-Athon by heading over to Abbey’s blog: here! Don’t forget to participate in the Festive Photo Challenge too, for a chance to win a prize and feel festive!